If I were Romney, our "allies" would only be so as long as they pulled their weight in the defense of their own country and the potential to help the US of needed. Otherwise, we need to use another word other than ally. This would coincide with the cut in the defense budget, and all other budgets.

Back in the day, Henry Ford needed to have a well paid American middle class to afford his product. Without them he couldn't achieve the wealth he desired. He made sure his employees were well paid not because he was a good American but because he directly or indirectly benefitted from it.

The reason many Americans are now finding it harder to secure decent paying jobs is because of a fundamental change in the American economic system since Henry Ford's time, mostly in the last 30 years.

Today the American financial sector is largely calling the shots when it comes to our country's economic policies. Those policies encourage off shoring of jobs and investments. A robust American middle class is not nearly as important as it once was to Henry Ford (regardless of any rhetoric PACs might be dispensing to the contrary thanks to Citizens United).

Americans will see continued growth in low paying service sector jobs as we have for the last 30 years, but it is highly unlikely that there will be a return of enough high paying manufacturing jobs to our shores to stave off China becoming the world's # 1 economy. That is because those Plutocrats that control our politics and policies benefit most financially when labor costs are significantly mitigated by off shoring jobs and production whenever possible.

The power structure of the United States is now tilted so much in favor of the Plutocrats that neither party is contemplating any serious economic reforms of our financial system to encourage real middle class job growth. In fact the GOP is pushing for more of the same deregulation and taxation policies that got us into this current mess in the first place.

No worries though, America's moneyed interests will do quite well, maybe even better, once China becomes the largest economy. American plutocrats are well positioned to flourish just like their European counterparts have since the sunset of Europe's economic dominance a century ago.

Don't believe me? 93% of all economic gains since 2008 have gone to the top 1% of Americans. Clearly demonstrating what happens to the general US population economically no longer has the same financial impact on the wealthiest Americans that it once did. Of course, it never hurts to socialize losses and privatize profits via the American taxpayer, the largest welfare program in American history.

Bottom line is this: Americanism/Nationalism is an increasingly antiquated concept, not nearly as important as Globalism, especially if you are part of the ruling Plutocracy.

I really hope that you are not right wing. That is the only half-way intelligent post about the economic system that I have read on this site. Kudos

On the other hand, many things you hear about Greece just aren’t true. The Greeks aren’t lazy — on the contrary, they work longer hours than almost anyone else in Europe, and much longer hours than the Germans in particular. Nor does Greece have a runaway welfare state, as conservatives like to claim; social expenditure as a percentage of G.D.P., the standard measure of the size of the welfare state, is substantially lower in Greece than in, say, Sweden or Germany, countries that have so far weathered the European crisis pretty well.